It is important, when transporting goods for example on trucks that the goods be properly secured to prevent them from moving around. This is important both with regard to avoiding damage of the goods and to minimizing safety hazards.
A typical known means of securing such loads is a chain and hook combination. Typically, a pair of such combinations is hooked to a load bed on which the goods are disposed, on either side of the goods, and then the two chains are secured to each other. There are various known chain load binders that have been used for this purpose. One such binder is known as “lever type” binder and is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. This binder is provided a lever handle H which is connected, at two spaced-apart pivot points P, to the respective hook mechanisms M. The dimensions of the lever handle H, the spacing between the pivot points P and their respective positions, are such that this device constitutes an over-centre “toggle” device. Thus, the lever handle H is moved in the direction of the arrow A as shown in FIG. 1 to the position as shown in FIG. 2 in which the handle is stably positioned, and in which the distance between the two hooks has been shortened, for tightening the binding applied to the relevant goods.
A disadvantage of such a device is that it can be difficult to use. For example, if the load consists of solid material, then the unyielding nature of such material makes it difficult to move the lever handle H into its stable position as illustrated in FIG. 2. It has been known for operators to attach extension bars to the lever handle to increase the leverage to facilitate moving of the lever handle H. However, especially in view of the high forces involved, this can be unsafe, and indeed has resulted in many accidents occurring.
On the other hand, if the material of the load is soft material, then there may be excessive yield, in which event it may not be possible to achieve a desired tightness of binding of the load.
Another form of binder is as illustrated in FIG. 3. In this figure, hooks K are connected to each other by a pair of bars B which are connected to a central body C, which in turn, is connected to a handle H via a central sprocket S. When the handle H is rotated in a tightening direction, the two bars B are drawn towards the body C, thereby increasing the tightness of the binding on the load. When the handle H is moved in the opposite direction, this releases the tightness of the binding.
Although this type of binder is preferable to the first type mentioned in relation to FIGS. 1 and 2, it is relatively expensive, and is labour intensive as a result of the need to rotate the handle H to release the load.
It is object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.